DEPARTMENT FOR
EDUCATION AND SKILLS News Release (2007/0083) issued by The
Government News Network on 17 May 2007
A personalised
skills assessment is to be made available in prisons and in the
community to identify offenders who will benefit from a programme
of employment-focused learning and skills training to reduce re-offending.
Under a new system - the 'campus' model - selected
offenders will receive tailored information, advice and guidance
and be offered a range of skills training after completion of
their assessment.
Training could include literacy, numeracy, language and key
skills, employer-led vocational skills, enterprise and
self-employment training, work trials, work experience and
voluntary work with skills training.
Two test bed regions, East of England and West Midlands, will
take forward the initiative that will include:
- stronger links with employers
- closer working with voluntary and faith communities
- engaging employers sector by sector
- meeting regional skills shortages and recruitment difficulties
by linking offender learning with local and city employment
strategy needs
Announcing the test bed regions, Skills Minister Phil Hope said:
"Helping offenders develop skills and secure better jobs is
central to the Government's aim of reducing re-offending.
"There is a "sea change" underway in the learning
and skills on offer to offenders. Testing these innovative ideas
to improve learning by offenders will significantly contribute
towards improving skills and employment, and reducing
re-offending, as outlined in our ambitious Next Steps document
last year.
"The test beds will build on the successes already achieved
by the Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) whose work has
overseen a significant increase in the education participation
rate amongst offenders.
"An external evaluator has been appointed to ensure that we
get the best out of the work of the test beds, making sure that
good practice and lessons learned are shared with stakeholder
bodies involved in delivering offender learning and skills.
"An innovation fund will be set up jointly between the
Department for Education and Skills and the Ministry of Justice to
ensure that ideas put forward by regions not allocated test bed
status are also trialled.
"This decision marks the culmination of the Next Steps
design process. It's now time to look forward to the next
stage - putting ideas into action - and to make the vision of Next
Steps a reality."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. As well as developing and trialling the three core elements of
the Next Steps proposals the test beds will be involved with the
whole agenda set out in the "Reducing Re-Offending through
Skills and Employment: Next Steps" document, which was
published in December 2006.
2. The external evaluator is provided under a collaborative
venture between NatCen and the Centre for Crime and Justice
Studies at King's College, London.
3. The 'campus' model was set out in the
Government's 'Next Steps' document that followed
the 'Reducing Re-offending Through Skills and
Employment' Green Paper consultation unveiled last year.
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